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Tell Me A Story

Pick a fairy tale. (Make sure it's a nice one. Some of the original Grimm Brothers tales are, well, grim.)

You are going to film this tale.

Part 1 - Storyboarding

Once you and your group have decided on a tale, you need to make a storyboard that breaks down your story into individual scenes.

The drawings to go with those scenes can be very simple Stick people are acceptable.

Each scene should show the shots you are going to use. Remember those?

ECU (extreme close up). This would be called macro in still photography.

CU (close up). The subject fills the screen.

MCU (medium close up). You see the subject and some background. It's not really close but not really far.

MS (mid shot). This shot includes the subject and some amount of the background. You probably don't see the subject's entire body.

WS (wide shot). You can see the entire subject. The subject probably about fills the entire screen leaving the rest of the shot for background.

VWS (very wide shot). You can just see the subject. The idea of the shot is to identify the location of the subject.

EWS (extreme wide shot). Way out there. Your subject is not visible.

Consider what your establishing shot will be. This sets the scene and draws you into the tale. Often it's a VWS or even an EWS, but it doesn't have to be.

Part 2 - Getting Ready

If you're filming a story, what do you need to get ready? How about costumes?

You don't need anything fancy. A cat could be a couple of construction paper ears and some whiskers.

What about props?

You can be minimalist again. You should have just enough props to hint at the bigger events happening. A paper plate, and a plastic knife and fork might represent a whole kitchen.

What about scenes/backgrounds?

Where will you film? There are good locations around school, but with the magic of Green Screen technology you can be anywhere.

Choose your background before you film. Sometimes, if you're clever, you can interact with your background (even a green screen background, think of the T.V. weather) but then you have to know what it looks like before you start filming.

Part 3 - Filming

Be organized. Have your camera, costumes and props ready and go to your location in an organized way.

When other members of your group are in a scene, be respectful and be quiet.The less background noise you have, the better.

Make sure that at the end of any class where you film, all your video clips have been transfered over to a flash drive or portable hard drive.

Part 4 - Editing

This part of the process should involve everyone. While only one person in the group can use the computer at one time, everyone should be looking, offering ideas and advice as to how the video should be edited and how the clips should be spliced together. There's no good reason for anyone to be playing games, horsing around, going for a drink or to the bathroom. Editing is a collaborative process.

We have enough laptops that we can have two per group which means that two people can edit your video clips before you put them together.